Executive Vice President of CRUCH in Chamber session: Provisional Administrator Project is a “necessary and urgent” measure”

In a special session to analyze the Provisional Administrator project, Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi stated that "it is not possible to endorse arbitrariness, illegality, or poor quality education based on the autonomy of educational institutions.".

The executive vice president of the Council of Rectors (CRUCH), Juan Manuel Zolezzi, attended the special session of the Chamber of Deputies regarding the Provisional Administrator bill submitted by the Executive Branch last week. During the session, the rector conveyed CRUCH's opinion on the initiative, which he considered a "necessary and urgent improvement" to the current institutional framework of the university system.

The rector pointed out that this project “should be evaluated primarily from the perspective of ensuring the right to education for students and their families. It is clear that the project's central purpose is to guarantee the continuity of studies and, consequently, to avoid the obvious harm that the closure of a university degree can cause to a student and their family on all levels, due to the serious breach of obligations by the institution where they are educated.”.

To achieve these objectives, he added that “it is necessary to strengthen the powers of the Ministry of Education to conduct investigations that allow for the timely identification of any potential violations and, if necessary, to enable the appointment of a Provisional Administrator whose mission is to rectify the problems and deficiencies that led to their appointment, ensuring the continuity of educational services. In other words, an intermediate mechanism is created that fills a gap in the legislation.”.

The rector also pointed out that, although he recognizes the State's duty to safeguard freedom of teaching and the autonomy of higher education institutions – values that have had the Council of Rectors as their staunchest defender – “it is not possible to endorse arbitrariness, illegality or poor quality of education based on the autonomy of the universities.”.

He also commented on the alleged unconstitutionality of the project: “Some of the most extreme critics of this project have claimed that it is unconstitutional; however, it is clear that it cannot be reasonably argued that the project is unconstitutional. The figure of the Provisional Administrator is not foreign to the national legal system, since it is already recognized in Law 20.529 on the National System for Quality Assurance in Early Childhood, Primary, and Secondary Education and its Oversight.”.